


Love Comes in Many Flavors

by SilenceIsGolden15



Series: The Kennerya Trilogy [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: But platonic!!!, Cuddling & Snuggling, Foster Kid Keith (Voltron), Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Lovebug AU, Missions Gone Wrong, Platonic Cuddling, Team as Family, Touch-Starved Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 11:11:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15817704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenceIsGolden15/pseuds/SilenceIsGolden15
Summary: The paladins are visiting a planet in hopes of securing an alliance when Keith is bitten by a mysterious insect. The effects are anything but comfortable.





	Love Comes in Many Flavors

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all I am so excited to be posting this I am so proud of this story and it's two sequels sklfjlksdjfkjsdkfj. ENJOY PLEASE.

After compiling all possible evidence and analyzing all available variables, Pidge has come to the definitive conclusion that this planet  _ sucks _ . 

It was hot, humid, and jungly. The Paladins were absolutely surrounded by green, thick vines twisting around trees twice as big as even the Redwoods back on Earth, and flowers of all colors the size of her head blooming from every direction. She knew she was supposed to be the guardian spirit of the forest or what the fuck ever, but this was a little much. 

Lance of course was having the time of his life. He darted between the group members as they made their way down the path from the Castle’s landing site, chattering away about the most meaningless things, probably excited to be somewhere with a climate similar to that of his home country. How he remained so upbeat and energetic in this heat was beyond Pidge’s comprehension, especially since sweat was already soaking the backs of all of their shirts and sticking their hair to their foreheads. Shiro’s floof in particular was suffering.

They were originally supposed to be wearing their Paladin armor, as they usually did for diplomatic meetings, but Shiro had taken one look at the thermometer and done a complete 180. Pidge could have hugged him for that, and in fact she did. 

As they made their way down the path, Lance bounded ahead from his previous position in the middle with Hunk to join the Alteans, who were leading the way to the meeting point.

“So, Allura,” He said to the Princess, who to Pidge’s chagrin looked absolutely unruffled by the outrageous weather, “What kind of aliens are we dealing with here? Sentient plant creatures or something?”

Allura laughed a little and brushed some hair behind her ear. Over time she’d gotten more used to Lance’s attitude and stopped being so irritated by it. 

“No, nothing like that. The Aranthir are actually quite fascinating-- they’re empaths who communicate emotions through touch. They are capable of verbal speech of course, but with each other they prefer to speak mentally.”

“Great.” Keith huffed sarcastically from behind her, and Pidge stifled her laugh in her fist. Shiro glanced over his shoulder at Keith, wearing some sort of unreadable expression, before turning back to the front. 

After some time they emerged from the jungle and into a clearing, where the negotiations were supposed to take place. In the center, overshadowed by the planets two suns and nestled in the knee high pastel green grass, was a long table draped in shimmery white cloth. On one end were a few chairs, presumably for them to sit in, and on the other end stood their hosts, the Aranthir.

They were startlingly tall, nearly twice the height of Allura, and so willowy a stiff breeze probably could have carried them away. One left the table to approach them, lumbering forward on four rear legs. The front two, which presumably served as arms, bent in at the elbows and out at the wrist, and Pidge found herself comparing them to a pray mantis from Earth. 

When they arrived, they didn’t speak. They simply extended one of their limbs to Allura, who gingerly wrapped her hand around it, and then they both lowered their heads. 

_ I have got to figure out how that works _ , Pidge thought to herself as she watched. After several moments Allura smiled, and then they both looked up again and broke their contact.

“Greetings, Paladins of Voltron.” The Aranthir began. Their voice was chirruping and rough, and not for the first time on a mission Pidge was glad for the translators they all wore. “We welcome you to our planet, and sincerely hope we can find common ground to unite us in the fight against the Galra.”

Shiro responded with something equally as rehearsed and courteous that Pidge tuned out, and then they were making their way across the clearing to the table to begin negotiations. 

Pidge tried to pay attention. She really did. But she was still sweating buckets, and the sunshine was making her sleepy, and there were these little golden bugs buzzing everywhere that kept landing on her hands and her exposed shins and leaving bites. They weren’t anything serious, more like mosquito bites than anything else, but they were itchy and irritating. 

It took Lance approximately ten minutes to completely lose focus and begin messing with Keith, and Pidge found herself wondering who the hell let them sit next to each other. Keith was doing his best to ignore him, absentmindedly swiping at the golden bugs whenever they came close to his bare arms. 

“Keith, Keith, Keith, Keith, Keith,” Lance was badgering quietly, poking Keith’s arm over and over. Keith’s lip twitched, and Pidge saw him crack barely a second before he actually did. 

“Lance.” He hissed, smacking the other paladins hand away. “Knock it the fuck off or I swear--”

Across the table, Shiro cleared his throat pointedly, and Keith begrudgingly fell silent, casting one last irritated look at Lance. 

Lance managed to pay attention for about five minutes after that before his gaze began to flicker and wander again. On her other side Hunk was resting his cheek in his hand, probably nodding off in between the boring conversation and the sunlight. 

_ Why Allura always insists on us coming along to these, I’ll never know,  _ Pidge thought to herself. Out of boredom she turned back to observing Lance and found him coaxing one of the golden bugs off of his jeans and onto his finger. She raised an amused eyebrow, but said nothing as Lance raised the little insect to his eyes and looked at it for a long moment. Then his mouth quirked into an amused grin, and he looked at Keith.

_ Oh Jesus _ .

Carefully, Lance held out his hand to Keith’s shoulder, not quite touching. Keith was absorbed in the conversation and didn’t notice as the golden bug hopped off of Lance’s hand and skittered across his shoulder. 

Half a second later Keith slapped a hand to his neck, face momentarily twisting into a grimace before he frowned and shot Lance a glare. Lance was currently pretending he wasn’t up to no good, and so Keith turned back to the negotiation, annoyance over. 

After several vargas more of listening to Allura negotiating and watching Lance try (and fail) to get Keith’s attention, Pidge honestly thought she was going to pass out from sheer boredom. Tilting over, she leaned her head on Hunk’s shoulder and tried to resist the urge to fall asleep. He patted her hair sympathetically.

“Pidge.” 

She straightened up quickly, trying to look attentive, but Shiro had caught her red handed. He flicked his disappointed gaze to Lance, then to Hunk. 

“Are any of you paying attention?”

On her right Lance slumped in his chair. Pidge wasn’t sure if he actually felt guilty or if he was just trying to prevent being lectured, but either way he looked contrite. 

“Sorry, Shiro.” Hunk murmured while Pidge gave Shiro a guilty shrug. The black paladin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, as though he’d been suddenly reminded that the other paladins were, in fact, teenagers and prone to short attention spans.

“You may be excused, paladins.” Said Allura, much to all of their surprise. At Pidge’s confused look, the princess smiled gently. “We’re entering the more, ah, delicate part of the talks. Your presence is no longer required.”

Pidge shot an unsure look at their hosts, but all of them were practically impassive and revealed nothing. So with another shrug she gave in and climbed to her feet. The walk back to the Castle through the jungle wouldn’t exactly be enjoyable, but at least her bug bites had stopped itching.

She half expected Keith to put up some kind of argument and insist on staying, but to Pidge’s surprise he just got up and followed quietly after the rest of them without so much as a glance back. If she’d been paying closer attention, she might have noticed how his clenched fists shook and how he was just a tad paler than usual. But alas, she was not, and the four of them returned to the castle as instructed, Lance jabbering the whole way back. 

* * *

By the time Shiro and the Alteans got back to the Castle, it was very nearly dinner time and the suns were setting. Pidge and Hunk were sitting at the dining room table when the three leaders walked in, bouncing ideas back and forth while Pidge tapped away on her laptop and Hunk fidgeted with a bit of tech. Shiro looked exhausted, Coran’s smile stretched a little too tightly, and even Allura was a little browbeaten.

“Hey guys.” Hunk greeted when they entered the room. Pidge barely raised a hand, absorbed in her work. “How did negotiations go?”

Allura sighed and pressed a hand to her temple. “The Aranthir are being rather… difficult. They want a guarantee of personal protection from Voltron, which obviously we cannot give them. If the Galra choose to attack here while we’re halfway across the Universe, there’s nothing we can do. And we can’t just stick around and let the Galra run amok.” 

Allura was clearly getting worked up the longer she spoke, until Shiro laid a hand on her shoulder and she cut herself off.

“We’ll get it worked out.” Said Shiro with his quiet confidence. 

Hunk pushed himself out of his chair, leaving his little project on the table. “I’ll go get the goo going.” He told them, then chuckled a little at his own alliteration, and the other three found their seats around the table. A few doboshes later, at his usual time, Lance came wandering into the dining room in search of dinner and quickly sank into an animated conversation with Coran. By the time Hunk returned with his floating trays of food goo everyone was in their place and waiting. 

Except for Keith.

“Alright, whose turn is it to corale mullet?” Lance asked with a teasing smile. They were all more than aware of how Keith got wrapped up in training or whatever else he was doing and had to be reminded that eating was a thing he had to do. 

“I’ll go.” Pidge didn’t mind volunteering herself; she needed a few minutes to herself to get out of her coding mindset and go back to being able to socialize, and the walk through the hallways to fetch Keith was the perfect time for it. She couldn’t resist itching at a bite on her hand as she left the room.

She found the red paladin on the training deck, as usual. But unlike every other time before, she didn’t find him on his feet fighting the gladiator or running a simulation. For once he was still, sitting up against the far wall with his head tilted back and his eyes closed. 

“Hey!” Keith’s head jerked up to stare at her with widened eyes, and Pidge smirked to herself a little. It was normally really difficult to sneak up on Keith, and she felt accomplished. “Dinner’s ready!”

Even from across the room she saw him take a deep breath, and then he was staggering to his feet, and Pidge frowned. Even from where she was she could tell how pale he was, and as he got closer she realized he was shaking all over. 

“Keith?” She asked quietly once he was close enough. “Are you ok? You don’t look too good.”

Keith heaved a sigh and reached up to push his hair back. Before he could say anything one way or the other, the motion of his hand moved his hair away from his neck, and Pidge caught sight of something that had her jaw dropping.

On his neck, just behind his ear, was a bug bite. But it didn’t look like Pidge’s irritated red ones or the harmless white bumps on Lance and Hunk. His was swollen to the size of a quarter, and more importantly, was tar black. 

“Keith!” She squealed, making him look at her with confused eyes. Stopping their progress towards the dining room, Pidge reached up with the intention of inspecting the bite, only for Keith to glare and back up a few steps.

“What? What’s the matter?”

“You have a big ass black bite mark on your neck, that’s what!” 

Keith raised a hand and covered the mark with his palm, already frowning. “It’s just a bug bite, Pidge. Not a big deal.” 

“I think Coran should be the judge of that.” Pidge responded. She made to grab Keith by the wrist, only for him to jerk away. “Come on, we’re going to the infirmary. No arguments.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Fine. But it’s a waste of time.”

Pidge rushed them down the various hallways to the infirmary, and fussed at Keith until he relented to sitting on one of the cots while she went to the comm on the wall.

“Coran, can you come down to the infirmary please? Thanks.” 

Tucking his legs up onto the cot, Keith glared at Pidge, still covering the mark with his hand. Pidge steadily ignored him. The glare wasn’t nearly as scary when he was exhausted and trembling like that. Instead it made her scared in a completely different way. 

Barely two doboshes later Coran was striding into the infirmary, Shiro on his heels. And Allura. And Lance, and Hunk. 

“I just asked for Coran!” Pidge exclaimed, bracing herself for Keith to try and bolt from the room. “Not the entire peanut gallery!”

Shiro brushed right by her, ignoring her words entirely, and made a beeline for Keith. 

“Hey, are you ok?” He asked, voice dipping low in concern. Keith gave him an exasperated look. 

“I’m fine, Shiro. I just have a bug bite on my neck and Pidge is freaking out.”

“Let me see.”

Reluctantly, Keith peeled his hand away from the bite, and a series of gasps echoed through the room. 

“Keith!” Allura cried in an admonishing tone. 

“What the hell, dude?” Exclaimed Lance, staring stunned. Hunk twisted his hands together, clearly not liking the look of it at all. 

“Now now, everyone, let’s not panic. Let me run a quick scan first.” Coran bustled over to the side of the room to fetch the medical tablet while Shiro knelt down in front of the cot, pinning an evasive Keith with a concerned look. 

“When did you get this?” He asked. Keith huffed and wouldn’t meet his eye.

“During the talks.  _ Someone _ ,” his eyes leapt up to Lance, “Thought it would be funny to get one of those gold things to bite me.”

“I didn’t know this would happen!” Lance denied, and his voice was high pitched like he was panicking. “Those things were biting me all day and they don’t look like that!”

Pidge groaned and buried her face in her hands. She  _ knew  _ they shouldn’t have let the two of them sit next to each other.

“Excuse me, number two.” Coran said briskly, waving Shiro off as he approached with his tablet. He held it up to start scanning the bite, and Keith held as still as possible. 

“Wonder why yours looks like that but mine and Lance’s don’t.” Hunk mused, taking a couple of steps closer. “You think it’s a Galra thing?”

“What if those bugs are poisonous to Galra?” Lance asked, then blanched. “Oh my god, did I kill Keith?!”

“Calm down, my boy.” Said Coran, scan complete and now typing away on his tablet. “The bite isn’t fatal. A-ha!” He held up the tablet victoriously, though the words were far too small for any of them to read. 

“This, my friends, is the bite of the Kennerya insect, or the golden sunrise bug. According to my database, the venom of this insect attacks the pain receptors in the brain, causing significant discomfort that can be allayed by physical touch. The Aranthir note that it is completely harmless!” 

“You used ‘significant discomfort’ and ‘completely harmless’ in the same sentence.” Lance said doubtfully. “How does that work?”

Pidge snorted and tossed her head. “Of course the Aranthir would say it’s harmless. They communicate by  _ touch _ , when they get bitten they probably don’t even feel it.”

“Precisely, Number Five!”

_ But wait… Keith never lets anyone touch him.  _

Apparently she wasn’t the only one who thought that, because all eyes in the room turned simultaneously to Keith, who was inspecting his boots with great attention to detail. 

Shiro immediately returned to his previous position, nudging Coran out of the way. 

“Keith, be honest with me.” He said, undeterred by the lack of eye contact. “Are you in pain?”

Keith took a breath before just barely nodding. 

“Scale of one to ten?”

“Shiro--”

“Scale of one to ten.” He wasn’t going to take no for an answer. 

“... Seven.”

Shiro breathed in sharply and Pidge felt her stomach twist with guilt. She and Hunk had spent the last few hours sitting around fiddling with tech, while Keith huddled in the training room trying to-- what? Wait it out? Ignore it? 

“How long is this going to last?” Shiro was asking Coran. 

“According to the database, about a movement.”

“We should put him in a pod at once.” Allura chimed in, already moving to activate one, only for Coran to gesture at her to stop. 

“No no, Princess. Putting him in a pod would only freeze the venom, not heal it. His body has to process it on it’s own.”

Allura’s face scrunched up in frustration. “We can’t have one of our paladins out of action for that long.”

“Well, Coran did say touch was supposed to help…” Supplied Hunk, a little hesitant, which of course Keith was  _ not having any of. _

“No!” He scrunched back against the wall. “No, I can’t be hanging off of one of you for a week! What if we have to form Voltron?”

“Keith,” Coran began in a surprisingly gentle voice. “It’ll only get worse if you avoid it. It’s just like any other illness.”

But Keith was already shaking his head, and he still hadn’t moved his hand off of the mark. Pidge couldn’t tell if he was pale because of the pain or because he was scared. 

“Can I go?” He was looking at Shiro for permission with big, pleading eyes. “Can I leave now? Please?”

“Hold on!” Lance exclaimed, starting to shove forward, but Shiro put out an arm to stop him. 

“Yes.” Shiro said. “You can go.”

In seconds Keith was off the cot and out the door, leaving the other paladins confused and blinking in his wake.

“Why’d you let him leave?” Lance snapped at Shiro, shoving his hands in his pockets and hunching his shoulders. “He’s still hurting!”

“He needs some time to process.” Responded Shiro in his never ending patience. “Give him a few hours.”

“He’s not a very touchy guy, Lance.” Pidge added, keeping her voice light despite the worry churning in her gut. “Now he finds out he has to be constantly touching someone for a whole week or he’ll be in awful pain? Probably freaks him out a little.”

Shiro smiled gently at Lance, despite the blue paladin still looking miffed. “He’ll come around. We just need to be patient.”

* * *

Keith found himself in his dark bedroom, coiled up into a ball against the wall, willing himself to stop shaking and failing. Everything burned. It felt like someone had injected capsaicin directly under his skin, leaving an awful burning itch that spread everywhere and refused to leave. In the hours since he’d fled the infirmary it had only gotten worse.

When he’d heard Coran’s diagnosis, he’d been terrified. Well, most of him. He had to admit that at least one part of him had actually been happy, because now he’d have an excuse to ask someone to touch him. How pathetic. 

He couldn’t let himself indulge in this. No matter how bad the pain got, he had to remember not to indulge in this. He couldn’t get clingy. They’d get sick of him. He just had to keep going as usual. Take what he could get from Shiro and not ask for anything more, no matter how bad it got. 

Footsteps.

He tensed up, the same way he did every time he heard footsteps in the hallway, held his breath and tried to be as still as possible. Usually whoever it was would keep going right past his room, and Keith would let out a sigh of relief and spend a few minutes feeling a little silly that he’d panicked over something so simple. But this time the person didn’t keep going. This time the person stopped right in front of his door and stood there just long enough for Keith’s heart to stop beating. 

The logical part of his brain told him it was probably just Shiro, coming to check on him since he was sick and everything. But the other part, the part that had never grown out of being a scared kid, whispered  _ You’re in trouble. What did you do wrong? Hide, hide before they come in and hurt you.  _

The person knocked and Keith flinched at the sudden sound, then immediately berated himself for it. 

_ It’s just a knock on a door, calm down, Jesus fuck.  _

“Keith?”

His eyebrows rose. It was Lance, but he didn’t sound like Lance usually sounded. His voice was thin and… unsure? 

“I wanna talk to you. Can I come in?”

Keith pondered his response for a long moment. He didn’t really want to talk to Lance right now, not Lance of all people, but if he was too rude about it he would drive him away for good, and that’s the last thing he wanted. 

“Do what you want.” Is what he decided on. His voice came out rough and hoarse, and it made him cringe. There was a pause, probably as Lance debated what he was going to do, and then the door swished open. 

Keith carefully kept facing the wall. 

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

Keith let out a noncommittal grunt in response. 

“Still a seven?”

“More like an eight, now.” He admitted quietly. Lance sighed from behind him and moved a few steps closer to the bed.

“I just… I wanted to say that I’m sorry. For sticking that bug on you. It’s my fault you’re hurting now.”

Keith frowned. “You didn’t know this would happen.”

“I’m still sorry.”

Curling up tighter, Keith murmured, “I forgive you.”

Lance released a heavy breath and shuffled even closer. 

“Look, Shiro said I should leave you alone, but I want to try and help. If you’ll let me.”

Keith dug his teeth into his lip. He wanted to say yes. If he was being honest with himself, this really fucking hurt. Tears were even starting to form at the corners of his eyes despite his best attempts to keep them at bay. It was awful, and all he wanted was a goddamn hug. But he couldn’t say that, couldn’t ask, or Lance would get annoyed and not want him anymore. 

“Do what you want.”

Lance sighed, and Keith unconsciously pressed himself closer to the wall, gut clenching. Lance was annoyed with him. He’d tried so hard and it hadn’t been enough. 

Then he felt the mattress sink behind him, and his breath caught in his throat. Lance hadn’t left?

“I do want to help.” He was saying, fingers making little tap sounds as he drummed them against the mattress. “But I’m not going to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, and I’m not going to let you make yourself put up with something you don’t like because you feel obligated. I need a yes or a no.”

Keith opened his mouth to answer, a self protecting ‘no’ poised on the tip of his tongue. But at that moment a wave of pain wracked through him, lighting him on fire, making his blood boil in his veins, and he changed his mind.

“Yes.” He tried not to let the whimper out. 

Lance moved cautiously, though he didn’t dawdle. He laid a hand on Keith’s shoulder, squeezing lightly, and Keith sighed in bliss. The fire under his skin finally went out, sinking in to form a deep ache in his bones instead. It still wasn’t entirely comfortable, but it was better. Much better. 

“Better?”

“Yeah.”

“Number?”

“Four.”

Lance hummed a bit, and Keith slowly let the tension out of his muscles. Best to enjoy this while he could before the touch went away again and the pain came back. 

“Can I try something else?”

“If you want.”

“Keith.”

“Fine. Yes.”

The mattress jostled some more as Lance swung his legs up onto it, carefully not removing his hand from Keith’s shoulder. Then, moving slowly like he was dealing with a spooked animal, he wrapped his arms around Keith and tugged him back against his chest. 

At first, all of his muscles went completely lax as the pain finally bled out entirely. Then his brain caught up with his body and he tensed right back up. 

He’d only been held like this once in his life, and it hadn’t been like this. He’d been eight years old, sitting in a dingy living room while four other children ran and chased each other around him, yelling. It was too loud, too much, and he’d coiled up and put his hands over his ears. When that didn’t work, he’d started screaming, just to drown out the other sounds with his own voice. His foster father, who was supposed to be watching them, gathered him up just like this.

But it wasn’t meant to be comforting. He held tight, too tight, until Keith felt his ribs creak and he stopped screaming. Not because he wanted to, but because he couldn’t get enough air in his lungs to keep going. 

It took him several seconds to realize he was shaking again. 

“You ok?” Lance murmured in his ear. “This not working?”

“I-it’s working.” He had to stop and clear his throat to get rid of the tremor. “It’s not you. It’s fine.”

“Alright. Tell me if you want to stop.”

_ He said if, not when. _

They laid there for a long time. The shaking came and went, returning when he thought about the crushing weight of his foster father, pinning him down. But Lance’s arms weren’t like that. He didn’t crush or cling. He was being careful, so careful, prepared to pull away at the slightest twitch from Keith. 

It was so, so nice.

It was going on too long.

For Lance the silence was probably comfortable, not something to worry about. For Keith it was tense and expecting. 

He had to stop this, it was going on too long, Lance’s arms were probably falling asleep and going numb and he was probably sick of just laying here with Keith doing  _ nothing _ \--

But he was tired. He had no idea what time it was but he’d spent the majority of the day trying to ignore the pain he was in, trying to tough it out, push through it just like he’d always done, and fuck now that it was gone all he wanted to do was sleep and Lance was warm and god _ damn  _ it.

He fell asleep before he could work up the courage to tell Lance to leave.

* * *

Needless to say, Shiro was more than a little surprised when he went to check on Keith that night and found him asleep with none other than  _ Lance _ curled up around him, but he didn’t wake them up. It didn’t much matter to him who Keith got his relief from, so long as he wasn’t forcing himself to suffer alone.

But the next morning he ran into him in the hallway, already looking drawn and pale but insisting on doing his usual training regimen with Shiro before he had to go back to negotiating with the Aranthir. Shiro reluctantly agreed, but made sure to give him plenty of praising pats on the shoulder. Keith would roll his eyes every time, well aware of what Shiro was up to, but he couldn’t hide how he relaxed just a little whenever it happened.

“Don’t go off and hide once I leave.” He told him as they walked through the halls, Shiro on his way to meet Allura and Coran to continue the negotiations. 

“Yeah, ok.”

“I mean it Keith. I know you’re not big on touching, but it’s better than being in pain.”

“I get it.” But he was frowning and he had his arms crossed in his typical grouch position. Shiro mentally sighed to himself and tried to shake it off.

He had to focus on the Aranthir. 

* * *

As much time as Pidge had spent on this program, she really hated watching it run. She’d designed it to pick through whatever Galra data they’d stolen recently, looking for key words like human, Earth, and the names of her brother and father. But as much as she wanted to see the results, sitting there waiting for it to crawl through thousands of gigabytes of data was too much suspense. So she left her laptop on the floor while it ran and plopped herself on the couch, several holographic screens from Coran’s medical tablet floating before her. If she was going to be stuck here for awhile, she might as well do something useful. 

She dove into the words and let the research absorb her, as she usually did, so she barely heard it when the door hissed open. She flicked her eyes over anyway, a habit earned from hacking Garrison computers in the middle of the night, only to see Keith standing awkwardly in the doorway.

“Sorry.” He muttered, already starting to back away. Pidge noted quickly how he gripped one of his arms with the other, how his fingers dug in just this side of too hard, how he looked everywhere but her face. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“You didn’t.” Pidge answered, and Keith paused in the doorway. “Are you hiding again? You’re not supposed to do that.”

Keith huffed. “I know.”

“So get your ass over here.” She still didn’t look away from the holoscreens. There was a pause as Keith hesitated, and then he let out another disgruntled huff and shuffled across the room to plop himself on the couch. On the opposite end from Pidge. She rolled her eyes.

“You  _ know  _ that’s not what I meant, you bean.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Bean?”

Pidge finally tore her eyes away from the data to give him a cross look, jerking her head in an obvious ‘come here’ motion. Reluctantly, he scooted closer until his leg and shoulder pressed up against Pidge’s.

He couldn’t hide the way the tension leaked out of his muscles, and he stopped clenching his jaw as he exhaled. But Pidge noticed how his hands coiled and uncoiled still and saw the depression in his lip where he was biting the inside, and sighed to herself. This stubborn bastard.

“You are absolutely hopeless.” She muttered to herself, then reached up and grabbed him by the collar, hauling him down until he laid in her lap. He tensed up again, and for several long moments he remained frozen in place, like he was afraid to move. 

“Make yourself comfy. There’s no point in easing the venom if you lock up your neck.”

Slowly, carefully, Keith wiggled himself onto his back, leaving his head in Pidge’s lap. A light tinge painted over his cheekbones and he stared up at the ceiling, but he didn’t try to run away and he finally seemed relaxed, so Pidge allowed herself to return to her work.

“What are you working on?” Keith asked quietly after several minutes of silence. 

“I’m looking through the databases for more info on your whole bug bite situation.” She explained. “Trying to find a way to cure it, or speed it up. Just anything that would help.”

“Any luck?”

“Nah.” Pidge sighed and leaned back against the couch, absentmindedly dropping a hand to run through Keith’s hair while her other scrolled through the data. Keith didn’t even tense up this time, just melted into the touch, and she found herself smiling just a little. 

“You know, humans have this thing.” Pidge didn’t put much thought into what she was saying, just thinking out loud as she petted Keith’s hair and scrolled. “It’s called skin hunger. It’s the natural urge to touch and be touched by others.”

Keith hummed a little to indicate he was listening. When Pidge chanced a glance down at his face, he had his eyes closed. 

“And if you don’t satisfy that skin hunger, you can become touch starved. Obviously it’s not that simple, some people don’t like to be touched just because that’s how they are, or because they’re traumatized, or because they’re on the spectrum. It can also be a cultural thing; people from America and Canada where people aren’t big on casual touching are more likely to be touch starved.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And I think that’s why the bite is bothering you so much more than Lance or Hunk, or even me.”

“‘Cause I’m touch starved?”

Pidge looked down again. Keith looked content, happy even, the most happy and relaxed she’d ever seen him as he laid there and let Pidge play with his hair. She paused in her movements for a moment and Keith unconsciously turned his head into her hand until she resumed. 

“Yeah. It’s just a hypothesis though.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.” He frowned a little, brow furrowing. “I don’t think any of those are the reason why, though.”

“Really? What do you think it is, then?”

Honestly, this wasn’t how she expected this whole interaction to go, but if Keith wanted to actually open up to someone for once she wasn’t going to stop him. 

“I think it’s--” He frowned deeper, cutting himself off, and lightly turned his head away. “Nevermind. It’s dumb.”

“Hey, no, you’ve made me curious now.” 

Keith opened his eyes and pinned her with an unimpressed, unsure stare. Pidge stared back innocently, tilting her head and just looking until he gave in and closed his eyes again. 

“Fine.” He huffed. “I was just thinking that maybe--” He stopped and sighed in frustration. “I suck at this.”

“You’re thinking too hard.” Pidge told him, smoothing her fingers through his hair. “Whatever reaction you’re afraid of getting from me, it won’t happen.”

“... My first foster home.” Keith’s voice was small, difficult to hear even when Pidge was right above him, but she quieted her breaths and tried her best to decipher what he was saying. 

“I was six, I think. And they-- my foster parents, I don’t even remember their names-- they weren’t comfortable with touching. Maybe because I wasn’t actually their kid, but whenever I reached out, they’d push me away.” Keith clenched his jaw tightly and took a deep breath. Pidge kept petting his hair and said nothing.

“After a few months they gave me back. Said I was too needy. So after that I tried not to be clingy.”

Pidge hummed and nodded, keeping her exterior composed for Keith’s sake even as her heart shriveled up and died.  _ Who could be heartless enough to treat a kid like that? _

“But it, uh, kinda backfired on me.” He gave a little humorless chuckle. His eyes were still closed, probably so he could avoid looking at Pidge’s face. “There were other families that didn’t want me because I was too cold and standoffish. They thought there was something wrong with me, and they didn’t want a problem child. And then there were some places where being touched wasn’t necessarily a good thing.”

Pidge felt her fingers tremble, but tried her best to hide it and not falter in her hair stroking. 

“So yeah. That’s that, I guess.”

It really wasn’t. That was barely a fraction of the full story, of a million little bits and pieces of experience that all fit together to form the person in front of her, but she didn’t push. As far as she knew, Pidge was the only person besides Shiro that Keith had revealed these things to, and she wasn’t going to shatter that trust the moment she got it. 

“That sucks, Keith.” She said softly. She didn’t say she was sorry or offer pity, knowing from her own experience that pity served no purpose other than infuriating the target. What she gave instead was acknowledgement, that what he went through was awful and he didn’t deserve it. 

When it became clear he wasn’t going to say anything else, Pidge turned back to her database, though she still didn’t stop moving her other hand. Slowly, the remaining tension from their conversation eased out, and his breathing evened. 

Pidge had no idea how long she sat there with Keith sleeping on her lap. Long enough for her legs to go numb, but she didn’t dare move. Her laptop hummed quietly as her program ran, and she flipped through the same pages of data over and over, knowing that at this point she wasn’t going to find anything but needing something to do anyway. 

Some time later she heard the tell-tale sound of Lance’s voice bouncing off of the walls, and the door hissed open to admit him and Hunk. Lance immediately paused in his chatter when he noticed Keith, and his jaw dropped open.

“What the heck?” He hissed, thankfully keeping his voice low. “Getting him to let me touch him at all was like pulling teeth, and you’ve got him curled up in your lap like a flippin’ cat?”

Hunk slapped a hand over his mouth to smother his giggle as Pidge rolled her eyes at Lance’s dramatics. 

“May I remind you that I’m not the one picking fights with him all the time?”

Lance opened his mouth as though to retaliate, and then paused. “Ok, you may have a point.”

He and Hunk made their way further into the room and positioned themselves on the floor, careful not to disturb Keith, and the four of them fell into a companionable silence. Lance had been carrying one of the Altean tablets they’d been given and now busied himself with it, while Pidge scrolled pointlessly through her data and Hunk stared at Keith with quiet contemplation.

“This is weird.” He whispered eventually, pulling Pidge and Lance’s attention back to him. “I’ve never seen Keith take a nap before.”

Pidge shrugged a shoulder. “Pain is tiring.”

Hunk scooted closer to the couch and rested his chin on the cushion, narrowing his eyes at Keith like he was a particularly tricky algebra problem. 

“Have you guys ever really  _ looked  _ at him? Like, at his face? He looks exhausted. How much does he usually sleep?”

Pidge, thanks to her own late night habits, had Hunk’s answer. “More than me or Shiro, but way less than you or Lance. He’s usually on the training deck till 1 or 2 am, easy.”

Lance looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. “How do you know that?”

“I get lonely working sometimes, so I go sit in the training room while I work and he trains.” She shrugs again. “It’s a decent system. Neither of us have to talk, but neither of us have to be alone either.”

Hunk shook his head and clicked his tongue disapprovingly. “You’re a bad influence.”

“Please.” Pidge answered with a scoff. “Shiro told me once that he used to literally work until he passed out at the Garrison. Believe it or not, this is an improvement.”

Keith shifted a little in Pidge’s lap, and they all froze for a moment until he stilled again. 

“Still,” Hunk murmured when the coast was clear. “It’s clearly not enough.”

“He did this last night, too.” Lance noted. “Cuddle him for like half an hour and he’s out like a light.”

“Like a cat.” Added Hunk, and Pidge bit into her fist to stop her snickering from waking Keith. 

“Are all Galra basically giant space cats?” Said Lance with a smirk. “Because that’s what they act like.”

“I wonder if they can purr.” Hunk’s face lit up from his own speculation. “Oh my gosh, guys, do you think Keith can purr?”

“Even if he could, he probably wouldn’t.” Pidge said, shaking her head at their silliness. 

“We should ask Shiro about it.” 

“Ask me about what?” Shiro’s voice as he walked into the lounge was both a surprise and far, far too loud. 

“Shhh!” All three of them chorused at once, making the black paladin freeze in the doorway. Pidge looked down in a panic when she felt Keith shift, but he didn't wake up. He let out a sleepy groan of protest and rolled over so that he pressed into Pidge’s stomach, wrapping his arms firmly around her waist, and then settled back into sleep. 

“That’s fucking adorable.” Whispered Lance. Shiro shot him a chastising look, but didn’t say anything. His eyes slid over to Keith, and a light smile curled his lips.

* * *

Keith was starting to lose it, just a little bit. His nap with Pidge earlier had been nice, and sitting in the lounge with the others after dinner with Shiro’s arm over his shoulder was nice, but there was a downside to all this touch. And that was that being touched required other people to be present. 

He wasn’t used to being around the team this much, and it was starting to get to him. Every time someone moved he twitched, and every time one of them spoke it felt like insects crawling all over him. He’d run out of the mental energy required for socializing hours ago and now it was just suffering. 

So as soon as he could get away with it, he stood up and told the others he was going to bed, alone tonight thank you Lance, and made his escape. Being alone brought a sigh of relief, but as soon as he got back to his room the pain returned. 

God, this fucking sucked. He couldn’t be around the others without losing his mind, but he couldn’t be alone without being in pain. A lose-lose situation. Still, he tried not to brood too much, just curled up into a ball on his bed and tried to block it out enough to sleep. It wasn’t burning yet-- more like the ache he felt after a hard battle. He managed to doze that way for a couple of hours, not quite awake and not quite asleep but still better than being completely conscious. 

Then the bite kicked it up a notch, the ache ratcheting up into the burn, searing through him like flames licking over his skin and he jolted awake with a gasp. 

Keith hissed a swear between his teeth and coiled up tighter, pressing himself into the blankets as though it would help. It was the middle of the night by now, the whole Castle dark and quiet, and the thought of shattering that peace and tranquility by getting up and bothering someone was unbearable. He could wait it out by himself. He didn’t need help. He didn’t need to annoy anyone. 

A sting ran up his leg, as though the bite was reacting to his thought, and he jerked. His knee smacked against the wall with a  _ thump _ ; he muffled his curse into his palm and frantically tried to remember who he shared a wall with on this side. 

_ Hunk _ .

Keith had no clue if Hunk was a heavy sleeper or not but he found himself praying that he was, that he hadn’t been woken up by him kicking the wall, that he wouldn’t find it necessary to come knock on the door or--

“ _ Fuck _ .” 

He bit down on his knuckles until he tasted blood, but it did nothing to quell the burn. It was starting to get past a burn now, veering into sharpness, like a million needles being shoved into him all at once. The bite was getting worse-- it was taking less time to hurt more, and this was only the second night! He could only imagine how bad it was going to be in a couple of days, and his stomach twisted at the thought of how much time he was going to have to spend with the others. 

He could already see the looks on their faces come day 4 or 5 when they were going to start getting sick of him being all over them all the time. Lance would roll his eyes and make one of his barbed remarks. Pidge would snap like she sometimes did when someone interrupted her work. Shiro would put on that fake smile and pretend it was fine when it wasn’t. And once the bite was done and over with they’d all pull away as quickly as they could and leave him with even less than he’d started with. 

_ I can’t do this. _

He’d just have to do what he’d planned since the beginning. Lock himself in his room so that he couldn’t talk himself out of it, curl up in a corner somewhere and just grit his teeth and bear it. It was the only way to keep everything from falling apart.

_ Knock knock knock. _

“Keith? You ok, buddy?”

Damnit, Hunk was awake. Keith’s first thought was to pretend to be asleep, but then pain stabbed through him again and he couldn’t muffle his curses quickly enough. 

“Keith? Can I come in? You’re kinda freaking me out.”

Keith managed to croak out an affirmative answer, and the door hissed open to admit the yellow paladin. He was in his pajamas, headband missing and hair messy, and the guilt that tore into Keith was almost as bad as the physical pain.

“Sorry.” He muttered, curling his knees to his chest and trying his damn best not to make any pained noises. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Hunk took a few steps closer to the bed and Keith instinctively moved back towards the wall, not even realizing what he’d done until Hunk paused. 

“Sorry.” He said again. It was all he really could say for this whole situation. “Sorry.” 

“You’re alright.” Hunk seemed to have gotten the hint and didn’t move any closer. It was dark in the room and Keith couldn’t see his face, but he did see when Hunk rubbed his arms and glanced around. “Jeez, it’s kinda cold in here, isn’t it? Wanna come back to my room for a bit? It’s warmer.”

Keith balked, even as the burning in his limbs screamed for him to accept. He couldn’t invade Hunk’s space. That was  _ his  _ room, and he’s not supposed to go in other people’s rooms, he’s not  _ allowed _ \--

“Hey, don’t overthink it. I’m offering.” 

Keith was shaking again. He couldn’t, he shouldn’t, but God. How much longer could he take this?

“Ok.” He said, giving in. He still couldn’t see Hunk’s face, but he imagined he was smiling when he stepped forward and held out a hand for Keith to take. Moving was agony, but the flames died down into the ache again as soon as his hand was in Hunk’s much larger one. 

Hunk pulled him to his feet easily, tossing an arm around his shoulders and pulling him against his side. Keith couldn’t help it-- he melted into Hunk’s embrace, exhaustion dumping down on his shoulders and knees feeling like jelly as the pain continued to seep away. 

“Sorry.” He muttered as the two of them shuffled out of Keith’s dark room and back into the hallway. He didn’t even know what he was apologizing for anymore but he felt like he had to say it. 

“You’re ok, bud.”

Hunk’s room was in fact warmer than Keith’s, the lights still on. It was cozier than Keith’s too, full of little knick knacks that he’d collected and bits of tech that he’d been fiddling with. He’d stolen a few more blankets and pillows and had them piled on his bunk. Keith immediately turned toward the bed, only for Hunk to tighten his hold just slightly, and he froze completely. He’d fucked up somehow, already.

“Don’t you want to put pajamas on or something?”

Wait, what?

Keith looked up at Hunk, blinking a little in surprise. Hunk looked right back down at him with a brow furrowed in concern. This certainly wasn’t what he expected.

“What?” Is all he could manage. 

“You’re still in your clothes.” Hunk explained in a gentle voice that kind of made Keith’s skin crawl. “You didn’t even take your boots off.”

Keith’s eyes fell to the floor. He’d honestly forgotten that most people didn’t like to sleep in their shoes. 

“I like sleeping in them.” He murmured, not looking up. “That way if something happens, I’ll be prepared.”

Hunk was quiet for a moment, thinking, and then he shrugged. “Ok, if that’s what you like. Would you mind just taking off the boots, though? I don’t wanna get kicked in the middle of the night.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.”

Keith carefully stepped out of his boots, the chill of the metal floor pressing up through his socks and against the soles of his feet and making him shiver. He followed Hunk over to the bed, and the other boy didn’t hesitate to pull Keith into his chest. Keith carefully curled his fingers into the sunshine yellow cloth of Hunk’s shirt, and then the warmth slammed into him like he’d just stepped into a hot tub and within seconds his eyelids were drooping. 

All of the pain finally leaked away, leaving him feeling limp and vulnerable in its absence. But Hunk was there, a steadying presence, a soft, cuddly space heater, and he couldn’t resist the pull of sleep for much longer. 

* * *

The next few days were… complicated, to say the least. Shiro and Allura continued to go down to negotiate with the Aranthir, and they continued to be difficult and insist on things that weren’t within their power to grant. Lance was getting restless with nothing to do and resorted to annoying the others, which only Hunk could really put up with without snapping. 

Keith wasn’t getting better. Coran said the bite would get worse as his body burned out the venom, but that didn’t make it suck any less, especially as Keith could only take a few hours of being surrounded by people before he’d get prickly and run off to hide. The others would give him an hour or two to be alone, and then one of them would have to go hunt him down, knowing he wouldn’t come to any of them willingly. 

It was the morning of day five, and Shiro was exhausted. Allura wasn’t much better. After six days of negotiations they hadn’t gotten anything out of the Aranthir except for a sick paladin and a headache, and frankly Shiro was starting to lose his patience. 

“Allura,” He said that morning at the breakfast table, keeping his voice low so that the other people at the table wouldn’t hear over their own conversations. “I don’t know how much longer we can stay here. They aren’t budging, and we can’t give them what they want. We might have to just accept that we won’t get an alliance from them.”

Allura sighed, pushing away her bowl of goo and resting her cheek in her hand. “I know. I just… I had really hoped we could find some sort of deal. Every planet that doesn’t join us is another loss for us in the long run.”

Shiro leaned back in his chair. “We can spare another couple of days trying, until Keith is better, but beyond that I don’t know if we can justify staying here and not fighting.”

“I think you’re right.”

Casting his gaze around the table, Shiro performed one of his compulsive headcounts. His heartbeat promptly picked up when he came up one paladin short.

“Guys.” His raised voice caught the attention of the younger paladins, who all paused in their conversation and looked over at him. “Where’s Keith?”

Lance and Pidge glanced at each other. Hunk bit his lip.

“Ummmm…”

“Which one of you stayed with him last night?”

Lance looked at Pidge and Hunk. Pidge looked at the boys. Hunk looked at Lance and Pidge. None of them said anything. 

Usually Shiro tried not to swear in front of the others. Now was an exception.

“Shit.” 

When he got to his feet and hurried out of the room, everyone else was right on his heels. They all crowded around him in front of Keith’s door, all of them holding their breaths as he knocked. 

“Keith?”

“Go away, Shiro.” The voice that came out from behind the door was shaky, thin, and muffled-- like he was calling out to them from beneath his blanket. Which he probably was.

“I just want to help.”

“No!” Keith’s voice shattered on the exclamation. “No more touching. No more.”

“Come on, man, don’t be stupid.” Lance said, his expression much softer than his voice. Keith didn’t answer, and Shiro fastened a pleading look on Allura. They were supposed to leave soon to meet the Aranthir, but it was going to take time to talk Keith down, and he was probably the only person Keith would talk to. 

Thankfully, the princess gave him an understanding smile. 

“It’s alright, Shiro. You stay here. Coran and I will handle the Aranthir today.”

“Thank you, Princess.”

Allura nodded to him, then lightly tapped Coran on the shoulder, and the two of them walked off down the hallway to prepare to go planetside once again. Shiro turned back to the door just in time to catch Pidge’s wrist and keep her from opening it. 

“What?” She snapped, pinning him with a glare. “It’s not even locked! We can just go in.”

“No. This is Keith’s space-- we don’t go in unless he says we can.” Pidge looked a little surprised at his firmness, but she shrunk back anyway, a mollified expression on her face. 

“Keith.” He said again, turning his attention back to the door. “Will you let me in?”

“I don’t wanna be touched anymore.” 

“I won’t, I promise. I just want to make sure you’re alright.” 

“... Fine. But just you.”

Shiro shot a quick, reassuring smile over his shoulder at the others before he opened the door with a soft swish and stepped inside.

As he’d expected, Keith was curled up in a little ball on his bed, completely covered by his blanket. The blanket bundle flinched when Shiro’s footsteps echoed across the room. 

Shiro perched himself on the edge of the mattress, careful not to touch Keith as he did so.

“How bad is it?” He asked softly. The blanket trembled.

“N-nine.” His voice was completely wrecked. He sounded like he was crying.

Shiro bit back a sigh, knowing Keith would misinterpret it as him being annoyed, and folded his legs. He was going to be here for awhile. 

“Why won’t you let us help you?”

He was expecting something about not being comfortable. About not being able to take anymore physical contact. He was surprised by the answer he got. 

“I was getting too used to it.” Keith was barely audible as he muttered, voice already quieter than normal with emotion and being muffled by the barrier of fabric between the two of them. “I can’t let myself get used to it.”

Shiro frowned to himself, unsure of what was going on. He had the terrible sense that he’d missed something important-- and hurt Keith in the process.

“Why not?”

“I… I…” The blanket trembled as Keith shook with a sob, and Shiro had to physically restrain himself from reaching out for him. 

“It’s ok, Keith. You can tell me.”

“Be-because in two days the bite will be gone, and then you guys won’t want to t-touch me anymore, s-so I have to stop now, or I-I’ll--” Keith’s voice cracked again, and all Shiro could think was  _ I fucked up. _

All this time he’d been assuming that Keith was genuinely uncomfortable being touched. That his past trauma made it feel unsafe. It was only now that he was realizing he had it completely backwards. 

“Hey,” He fought to keep his voice even and not betray his guilt. “Will you come out for a second?”

Keith hesitated for a moment, but slowly lowered the blanket away from his face anyway, and Shiro’s gut twisted. 

He looked  _ awful _ . Drenched in sweat, deathly pale, clearly hadn’t slept at all the night before, cheeks stained by tears, expression scrunched up into a grimace in an attempt to hide the pain. And still he wouldn’t look Shiro in the eye and his whole body trembled. 

“Keith… If you want more affection, all you have to do is ask us.”

His face went from pained to terrified in about two seconds flat and Shiro felt like his heart might just shatter in his chest. 

“I can’t. I  _ can’t _ , Shiro. I can’t get greedy or e-everyone will h-hate me--” He suddenly cut himself off, pulling his hands out from underneath the blanket to cover his face as he broke down in tears again. 

“Hey, hey, Keith, come on, look at me bud.” Shiro tried his best not to freak out. He was no stranger to dealing with Keith’s breakdowns, it had just been a while is all. A long, long while. But he still knew the pattern. Keith could be angry and harsh and was a whirling dervish in battle, but he was only eighteen and god only knows how much he’d gone through in those eighteen years. And sometimes his walls would crumble, and underneath would be a scared little boy, terrified of losing everyone he loved. 

Keith reluctantly blinked up at him through his fingers, tears sticking his eyelashes together, and for a second Shiro completely forgot what he was going to say. What could he say? How could he fix this?

Keith had never been one for words. Shoot first, ask questions later. The phrases that had come to mind,  _ We’re a family, we’d never do that to you, that’s not how things are anymore, don’t you trust us, _ those wouldn’t work. Just telling him wouldn't work. They’d have to  _ show  _ him.

So instead of a lecture, Shiro just held his arms out. Keith looked at him, confused, and Shiro smiled sadly. 

“Why don’t we test that, huh?”

Keith drew in on himself, momentarily looking like he was going to refuse, but something changed on his face and he hesitated. Shiro waited patiently for him to make his decision. He shuddered, probably the bite pushing him to accept touch, and his jaw clenched. 

Then Keith was throwing himself forward, nearly knocking Shiro over in the aggressiveness of the hold. He recovered quickly and pulled Keith close, feeling the tremble of his muscles slowly decrease as the tension leaked out of him. His breath still heaved, and hot tears still found their way down his cheeks, but at least he was close again.

“I’m sorry.” He breathed out, almost too quiet to hear.

“Don’t be sorry. I should’ve seen what was really going on.”

* * *

Out in the hallway, the other three paladins sat against the wall and listened. They couldn’t hear everything, but they heard enough. 

“I knew it.” Pidge huffed, pulling her knees to her chest. 

“That stubborn idiot.” Lance drummed his fingers on his knees, eyebrows drawn together as though in deep thought. “How do we fix it?”

“We can’t just  _ fix  _ it.” Hunk mumbled, eyes glassy with his own empathetic tears. “This sort of thing, it’s… it can’t just be fixed.”

“Well we can’t just do nothing.”

They all sat in silence for a moment. They didn’t hear Keith speak, but they did hear Shiro through the door. 

“Don’t be sorry. I should’ve seen what was really going on.”

All of them wilted, shoulders hunching and bringing them closer to the floor. Pidge buried her face in her knees. 

But Lance hadn’t stopped thinking, and both Hunk and Pidge looked up curiously when he got to his feet. 

“Come on, I have an idea.”

* * *

After a few hours, after Shiro was certain he wasn’t in pain anymore, he managed to coax Keith out of his room. He was wobbly on his feet-- sleepy from the comfort of Shiro’s body heat and exhausted from raw emotions. He just wanted to stay in bed and sleep off the tears and any remaining aches in his bones, but Shiro was insisting staying in his room all day would only make him feel worse. 

Their first stop was the kitchen, since Keith had missed breakfast, and Shiro refused to budge until he ate a full bowl of goo. Keith half expected to find himself bristling at the nagging, but either he was too tired or he just thought it was nice for someone to care this much about him. Either way he didn’t get angry, and he didn’t brush Shiro off, and he let him be worried. 

Then Shiro wanted to take him to the lounge, and that’s where Keith started digging in his heels.

“Shiro, I’m tired.” He grumbled petulantly, more than aware that he was acting like a child and not really caring. 

“You can nap on the couch.”

“Why should I sleep on the couch when there’s a perfectly good bed in my room?”

Shiro gave him an exasperated look. “I already told you, locking yourself in your room all day will only make you feel more tired and grumpy. Trust me, I speak from experience.”

Keith groaned and rolled his eyes, but relented and let Shiro drag him down the hall with an arm slung over his shoulder, not letting him go for a second. 

Unbeknownst to them, the lounge had already been co-opted by the other three paladins, who had completely filled the half circle in front of the couch with spare blankets and pillows. Pillows lined the bottom of the couch, forming a soft barrier, and a layer of blankets softened the harsh metal floor into something tolerable. They were already inside their makeshift nest, Pidge tucked up against the couch between a couple of pillows with her laptop, Hunk sprawled out on his back with Lance leaning against his side, both of them on their tablets.

All three of them looked up when they heard the door open, and Pidge sent them a cheeky wave.

“What’s all this?” Shiro asked, and Keith knew he hadn’t been in on it. Studying the nest more intently, he noticed little packets of food and water stored in strategic locations. 

“Sleepover!” Lance said proudly, sitting up and laying his tablet aside. “For everybody. Including you, fearless leader.”

Shiro and Keith exchanged an amused look, and Shiro shrugged, as if to say  _ I guess we have no choice.  _

Keith took a step forward. 

“Ap-bup-bup-bup!” Keith stopped, looking with a raised eyebrow at Lance’s affronted face. “This is a place of relaxation, mullet. Jacket, gloves, and boots off. Then, and only then, may you enter the nest.”

“Sounds like a lot of work.” Keith quipped, only now noticing that all three of them were barefoot and Lance wasn’t wearing his usual jacket. 

“It’s worth it.”

Keith glanced at Shiro again, only to find him already removing his boots. So Keith followed suit, parting only a little reluctantly with his jacket and gloves. He almost immediately felt exposed and rubbed his bare palms together, calluses from his bayard running over each other. 

“Quit whining,” Lance said teasingly, even though Keith hadn’t said anything. “You’re lucky I’m not forcing you into pajamas and a face mask.”

Keith wrinkled his nose, and everyone laughed.

Once in the nest, everyone arranged themselves around him. Shiro laid down beside him, prosthetic arm stretched out beneath the pillow Keith laid on while curling up against his side. Hunk took the other side, sitting up against the front of the couch with his tablet in his lap, one of his legs pressing up against Keith’s side. Pidge sat perpendicular to Hunk, legs tossed over his lap and shoving her toes against Keith’s ribs. Lance laid on his stomach at their feet, letting Shiro and Keith rest their legs over his back. 

It was so pleasantly warm, and Keith honestly couldn’t think of a time he’d felt more safe than right that moment, in the middle of a cuddle pile of all the other paladins. He felt like a kitten sleeping in a pile of it’s siblings. There wasn’t a hint of pain. 

It barely took five minutes for him to fall asleep. 

* * *

Pidge sat quietly, watching her program run, and observed. 

All of the boys were asleep. Keith had passed out almost immediately, closely followed by Shiro, who had his cheek resting on top of Keith’s head as they slumbered. Lance had scrolled around on his tablet for a while until his neck started to hurt, then put his head down and followed the other two into sleep. Hunk stayed up longer, running his fingers through Keith’s hair, but eventually his head tilted back against the couch and he nodded off too. That left Pidge, feet rising and falling incrementally from Keith’s breaths. 

Coran and Allura would be returning from the negotiations soon, so she carefully snagged Lance’s tablet without disturbing the cuddle pile too much and sent Allura a message, warning them to be quiet if they came to the lounge. She wasn’t too concerned about Lance or Hunk, but Keith and Shiro hardly slept, and she didn’t want their momentary peace to be disturbed. 

If she was being honest, she was getting pretty sleepy too. Her program was at 52% completion, and the quiet humming of her laptop and the rhythmic breathing of her teammates was pulling at her eyelids, willing them to droop. Eventually she gave in, setting her laptop to the side and letting herself curl up against Hunks side, contorted so that her feet still touched Keith. She swept her eyes over the room one more time before letting them close.

After compiling all possible evidence and analyzing all available variables, Pidge has come to the definitive conclusion that at this moment, she couldn’t have been happier. 

**Author's Note:**

> What? What do you mean I'm projecting again psssshhhh i have no idea what you're talking about.


End file.
